Thunder and Lightning
To Germany now to check out Berlin based Thunder and Lightning, a band described as offering aggressive vocals with a classic rock touch, tons of riffs on the guitars, delicate solos and pounding drums – which sounds pretty good to me. They were good enough to send me through a copy of their latest offering, Dimension, to see what we thought of things!
Opening with Nowhere To Hide things get off to a melodic yet haunting start, a soft guitar line underpinned with a rumbling bass line leading the way into things beginning properly. Dark distorted guitar lines abound this track whilst the drums set the pace for everything, keeping things relatively slow but adding further to the heaviness of things. What’s most striking here is some of the tapped guitar lines in the background, you want solos awesome enough to melt your face, then you’ve got them right here! Serving merely as an intro track to Taken To Rest, everything suddenly ups pace and gets the pits moving. This track is a pumping example of what metal should sound like, all based around hammering drums lines, bass heavy rhythms and incredible riffs from the guitars, the vocals hark back to the wonder days of metal and grab your attention from the word go. As a start to an album, things are looking pretty good to me!
Horizon, 6-17 and Gismeroya all follow much the same outlook as the first two tracks, throw some awesome guitar lines into a pan, add some rolling drum beats and awesome vocal lines and what you end up with is Thunder and Lightning, a band which is surely going to sound even more awesome on the live scene! The Afterlife Pt II – Back to Life on the other hand is a whole different beast altogether, opening soft and melodic and concentrating on the melody of the track rather than the power, this is almost a respite from the power and allows you a moment to take on board what you’re hearing, the mix sounding reflective yet emotional from the word go. What’s most striking is how simple in form this track is, there’s no frills or unnecessary elements to confuse things, just the band doing what they do and doing it damned well! Life Without Fear is an awakening though, and soon you find yourself thrust back into the pacey circle pit rhythms of the previous tracks, anyone left sitting down through this track simply doesn’t deserve to hear it!
Sixty Towels and One Track Mind keep things firmly on the heavier side of the spectrum, once again throwing beats and riffs at you by the bucket load and suggesting that this is something you have to see on the live scene to fully appreciate it, then Lost And Gone comes along. Another of the laid back tracks on the album, this one forms over an acoustic guitar line, allowing the music to do the talking once again and not complicating anything, just keeping it simple and straight forward. There’s something truly epic about this track in the way the band have put it together, almost adopting an Iced Earth feel to things but allowing you to fully take everything on board through the softer approach. I never thought I’d like this one the most, but do you know what, this has become my personal favourite track from the album, and I don’t know why! I think it’s all of the elements they have thrown into things here, moving from the acoustic to the distorted, the vocals leading the way, the guitars backing everything up and the whole mix forming something which is impossible not to love – amazing.
Black Rose comes as a bit of a shock after the chilled out rhythms of Lost And Gone, but once again you find yourself out of your seat and pumping along with the band. The mix here is one which is going to get live crowds destroying the venue all over again and immersing themselves in the classic rock tinged music being thrown out at them. Adding in a catchy chorus which is sure to have live crowds singing along, this is another highpoint on the album and a track which I highly advise you to check out! Finishing with Against The Truth though, there’s a real sense that the album has gone full circle, closing as it began with hammering drum beats, soaring guitar lines and more bass than you can shake a stick at, this is a hell of a way to close things and leaves you with no doubt that what you’ve just heard is an album which you’re going to come back to time and time again.
I didn’t know what to expect from a band called Thunder and Lightning, it doesn’t give a lot away where as a lot of bands choose a name which describes them musically. What you’ve got here though is music which is akin to Thunder and Lightning, it’s loud, spectacular and something which you secretly love from the moment it begins. This is one hell of an album which leaves me with one huge question, why haven’t I come across these guys before! This is a band which represents this section of the website perfectly – a band you need to hear!
To find out more about Thunder and Lightning, check out their Facebook page HERE.
Opening with Nowhere To Hide things get off to a melodic yet haunting start, a soft guitar line underpinned with a rumbling bass line leading the way into things beginning properly. Dark distorted guitar lines abound this track whilst the drums set the pace for everything, keeping things relatively slow but adding further to the heaviness of things. What’s most striking here is some of the tapped guitar lines in the background, you want solos awesome enough to melt your face, then you’ve got them right here! Serving merely as an intro track to Taken To Rest, everything suddenly ups pace and gets the pits moving. This track is a pumping example of what metal should sound like, all based around hammering drums lines, bass heavy rhythms and incredible riffs from the guitars, the vocals hark back to the wonder days of metal and grab your attention from the word go. As a start to an album, things are looking pretty good to me!
Horizon, 6-17 and Gismeroya all follow much the same outlook as the first two tracks, throw some awesome guitar lines into a pan, add some rolling drum beats and awesome vocal lines and what you end up with is Thunder and Lightning, a band which is surely going to sound even more awesome on the live scene! The Afterlife Pt II – Back to Life on the other hand is a whole different beast altogether, opening soft and melodic and concentrating on the melody of the track rather than the power, this is almost a respite from the power and allows you a moment to take on board what you’re hearing, the mix sounding reflective yet emotional from the word go. What’s most striking is how simple in form this track is, there’s no frills or unnecessary elements to confuse things, just the band doing what they do and doing it damned well! Life Without Fear is an awakening though, and soon you find yourself thrust back into the pacey circle pit rhythms of the previous tracks, anyone left sitting down through this track simply doesn’t deserve to hear it!
Sixty Towels and One Track Mind keep things firmly on the heavier side of the spectrum, once again throwing beats and riffs at you by the bucket load and suggesting that this is something you have to see on the live scene to fully appreciate it, then Lost And Gone comes along. Another of the laid back tracks on the album, this one forms over an acoustic guitar line, allowing the music to do the talking once again and not complicating anything, just keeping it simple and straight forward. There’s something truly epic about this track in the way the band have put it together, almost adopting an Iced Earth feel to things but allowing you to fully take everything on board through the softer approach. I never thought I’d like this one the most, but do you know what, this has become my personal favourite track from the album, and I don’t know why! I think it’s all of the elements they have thrown into things here, moving from the acoustic to the distorted, the vocals leading the way, the guitars backing everything up and the whole mix forming something which is impossible not to love – amazing.
Black Rose comes as a bit of a shock after the chilled out rhythms of Lost And Gone, but once again you find yourself out of your seat and pumping along with the band. The mix here is one which is going to get live crowds destroying the venue all over again and immersing themselves in the classic rock tinged music being thrown out at them. Adding in a catchy chorus which is sure to have live crowds singing along, this is another highpoint on the album and a track which I highly advise you to check out! Finishing with Against The Truth though, there’s a real sense that the album has gone full circle, closing as it began with hammering drum beats, soaring guitar lines and more bass than you can shake a stick at, this is a hell of a way to close things and leaves you with no doubt that what you’ve just heard is an album which you’re going to come back to time and time again.
I didn’t know what to expect from a band called Thunder and Lightning, it doesn’t give a lot away where as a lot of bands choose a name which describes them musically. What you’ve got here though is music which is akin to Thunder and Lightning, it’s loud, spectacular and something which you secretly love from the moment it begins. This is one hell of an album which leaves me with one huge question, why haven’t I come across these guys before! This is a band which represents this section of the website perfectly – a band you need to hear!
To find out more about Thunder and Lightning, check out their Facebook page HERE.